The commission says the onus is on family members themselves to register the names — something that may not be widely known.

Sue Montgomery, commission spokesperson, told CBC News that family members can register in four ways: email, fax, mail or via the inquiry website. Montgomery also said family members will be able to call a toll-free number as of Wednesday.

Lack of names in database ‘appalling’

Anita Ross, mother to Delaine Copenace, 16, whose body was found last spring off a dock in downtown Kenora, Ont., is one of the people concerned by the process.

“Not everyone emails, or uses Facebook, or has access to the internet,” says Ross.

Ross said she recently contacted the commission to see if she was registered, since she recalls signing up online sometime in 2016.

“I don’t like to just give information to any website,” says Ross. “I never got no acknowledgement or saying that I am now registered.”

The body of Delaine Copenace, 16, was found in Kenora, Ont., last spring. Her mother, Anita Ross, says the process for registering with the inquiry is flawed. Not everyone has access to the internet, she says. (Facebook)

But Montgomery said families might have signed up for their newsletter instead of registering with the inquiry — something she is working to clarify on the inquiry’s website.

Roxana Wilson, who lives in northern B.C.’s Fort Rupert, said she was appalled to learn how few names the commission has in its database.

Wilson’s six-year-old daughter, Adriane Cecile Wadhams, was murdered in June 1989. Jason Kennedy, 15 at the time, was sentenced to life in 1991 for her death.